I am just thrilled with my new sewing room, in the basement. :) I have a LOT of room, and therefore everything stays pretty neat.

My only issue is that things I am working on--such as BOM's--are just hung up on hangers, with clothespins, and then stuck wherever--like on the top edge of the door. I would like something where I could pin these up, sort of for decoration, and also for placing things when I get to that point.

The wall I want to use is cement block, so I would need something to attach to that (hubby could put anchors in or something--he doesn't mind doing so). I thought about a large bulletin board, but so far have only seen 2' X 3' bulletin boards. Not big enough.

Any ideas for me?

03-02-2012, 08:51 AM

Tartan

Is the basement ceiling finished? If it isn't, I would see if you could put up a long piece of pipe attached to the beams on both ends as close to the wall as you can. Get those cute little curtain hangers from Walmart that have the little teeth clothespins for hanging curtains. I clipped up a flannel backed tablecloth to those. You can then pull the tablecloth across the pipe and use the flannel back as a design wall. Blocks will stick quite well to it. I find for a quilt top that I need pins along the top to hold it.
If the ceiling is finished, you may need to get some cement screws with the anchors (if your husband doesn't mind holes in the wall) and fasten up something. OR Have you looked into the peel and stick cork squares? How about those interlocking foam mats you can buy at Walmart? They could be stuck to the wall with cement epoxy? Just a few things to think about, maybe someone else will have some more ideas for you.

03-02-2012, 09:12 AM

Andii

My tiny design board is a piece of foamboard from the dollar store. There's not room for a whole quilt, of course, but I do hang my BOMs on it. I thought about getting more of them and putting them on the wall with some command strips-I think it would work because they're so light weight. Let us know if you come up with anything good.:)

03-02-2012, 09:46 AM

gardnergal970

I used 3/4 inch insulation board form Lowes which my DH attached to a frame he had built in the wall. I only have room for 6 feet wide but 8 would be better for the queens sized quilts. I then covered it with batting and it works perfect. The only time I use pins is when I'm spray basting a quilt together and want things snug. I don't know what I would do without it.

03-02-2012, 06:08 PM

grandmajuki

Get you some blue board..now pink in some places about an inch thick liquid nail it to the wall comes in 4x8 sheets and then use flannel or batting to cover it (use spray adhesive) start in the middle and work out and will add some light and you can put lots of blocks on it. make it as big as you can mine is 12 feet long and 8 feet high..

03-02-2012, 08:40 PM

QuiltE

My design wall is made of tentest (comes in 4x8' sheets). I covered each sheet with 60" black fleece. Then screwed each onto the wall. Total size .... 10ft x 7-1/2 high. It's worked out great ... I never need to use pins to hold blocks up. Even fully assembled quilts have been hung without pins!! :) The tentest is soft enough though, that you can stick pins in easily ... which I often do to hold up patterns or notes to myself about projects!

Make it as large as you can ... then you can have more than one thing up at a time if you like.

03-03-2012, 05:54 AM

Pieces2

They make 4 ft. X 8 ft. insulation panels for houses, its 1 inch thick. Its coated with a silver product.
This makes a great design wall for your situation, it can be glued to your cement wall. Then add
a piece of flannel to the insulation board

03-03-2012, 09:24 AM

great aunt jacqui

I do not have a lot of room but I put sticky velcro on the tops of 2 door frames that were close and sewed ane sewed velcro on to a flanel backed table cloth. I leave my blocks there and can remove the table cloth when needed.

03-03-2012, 09:39 AM

AnitaSt

My design wall is a heavy weight flannel sheet (from the Vermont Country Store catalog...a little pricey but more heavyweight than I could find elsewhere) hanging on clip rings from a decorative curtain rod. I can pin blocks to it if they don't have enough cling or get too big. I also use it to hang up a finished quilt to take pictures. And just for display sometimes. I love seeing blocks on the wall.

If you go the curtain rod route, a couple of words of advice:

Get double the number of clip rings and space them closer together than you would for a curtain. Provides more support and the flannel sheet won't ripple as much.

My flannel sheet rippled more than I wanted so I sewed a 4-inch wide band of curtain header (the polyester type, not the heavier buckram) to the top. That eliminated the ripples.

Anita

03-03-2012, 05:02 PM

tdelamer

We used the foam wall insulation board that you can find at Lowes. Then I covered it with flannel. This works great for me because I can either pin or press the blocks.